Rating: 
Summary: A rich and playful jaunt
Review: Anyone who criticizes this novel as slow should go back to comic books. "The Seven Sisters" is a literary novel, meant to be savored.
The cleverly-named Candida reveals herself in surprising ways. Though not as ambitious a work as Joyce's "Ulysses", Drabble's references to the "Aeneid" guide us as we follow Candida on her travels.
This is a complex novel, exploring the metamorphosis of a seemingly ordinary woman.
Rating:
Summary: A rich and playful jaunt
Review: Anyone who criticizes this novel as slow should go back to comic books. "The Seven Sisters" is a literary novel, meant to be savored.
The cleverly-named Candida reveals herself in surprising ways. Though not as ambitious a work as Joyce's "Ulysses", Drabble's references to the "Aeneid" guide us as we follow Candida on her travels.
This is a complex novel, exploring the metamorphosis of a seemingly ordinary woman.
Rating:
Summary: A rich and playful jaunt
Review: Anyone who criticizes this novel as slow should go back to comic books. "The Seven Sisters" is a literary novel, meant to be savored.
The cleverly-named Candida reveals herself in surprising ways. Though not as ambitious a work as Joyce's "Ulysses", Drabble's references to the "Aeneid" guide us as we follow Candida on her travels.
This is a complex novel, exploring the metamorphosis of a seemingly ordinary woman.
Rating: 
Summary: Money does make a difference
Review: Embittered and depressed by her divorce, and estranged from the grown daughters who side with their professor father, Candida Wilton moves from a comfortable suburban house to a grubby, walk-up apartment in Central London and documents her new life in a computer diary, the first and longest section of the book.
Dreary, depressed and priggish, but tartly observant, Candida describes her brief excursions through the local streets to her health club, which was formerly an adult education college where she took an evening class on Virgil's "Aeneid." She took the class - and then joined the health club - with an idea to meeting people unlike those in her previous life in academe. But: "Already I was wary about making friends with the kind of person who would want to be friends with a person like me."
This line says much about what is endearing and annoying about Candida - her sour depression and her intelligent self-mockery. She spends most of her time alone, reaching out tentatively to women from the Virgil class, having a grudging lunch with an inquisitive friend from her former life and defensively bracing for a visit from her brash, brazen and successful old school chum. In the dirty, littered streets, she is a sharp, alien observer of everything from the "shocking" condition of the pavement to the impenetrable advertisements and graffiti posted along the way: "I couldn't decode any of the messages."
Candida reflects on her life and marriage, motherhood and age ("There was more to look forward to, but less to possess. It's the other way round now"). She's merciless, to herself as well as others and readers may well come to sympathize at least a little with the faithless husband. Then Candida comes into a small windfall of money - enough to lighten her tone and spur her to new heights of initiative - organizing an excursion from Tunis to Sicily and Naples to follow in Aeneas' footsteps. She recruits her friends from the Virgil class as well as her two older friends and the second part of the novel takes off in a completely different vein.
The third person narration is upbeat, the wit still wry but less mordant, the characterizations sharp and perceptive. The plot also heats up in this section, and the two following sections, with revealing, unexpected, and sometimes unlikely, twists. The novel is perceptive, clever and surprising. Though Candida occasionally makes you want to give up on her, Drabble ("The Peppered Moth," "The Witch of Exmoor") keeps you going with her acerbic, pitch-perfect prose and Candida's refusal to give up on herself.
Rating:
Summary: One of her best!
Review: I am also a woman in my 50's, but I am not bitter and alone, so I loved this book. I think it's one of Drabble's best. The character of Candida is almost Fay Weldon-ish in her sarcastic observation of the world around her, and she's generally dead right. It's amusing, touching and entertaining. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A book of slow change, possible in every age.
Review: I am not sure "the Seven Sisters" is a book for everyone. I am tempted to say that the story will most appeal to senior age women. On a second thought... maybe not. It will appeal to anyone who has been thinking of senior age, to anyone who has felt lonely, closed behind four walls, trying to figure out what to do with a day that stretches out endlessly... I myself do not belong to any of the above mentioned groups and still, have found this book to be relaxing and comforting, as in the end the bottom line is as always - reach out to other people.
This is a book of change. A very slow change that can happen in every age. Candida Wilton writes to herself the accounts of her London life. We do not know if Candida means her diary to be read by other people (there are hints she does), but it seems she wants to arrange her thoughts and feelings. Candida moved to London by herself after her divorce from Andrew. She says out front that she is not in a close touch with her three daughters. She does not make an effort to be connected to them or does not show the reader that she is much bothered by this fact. Only towards the end of the book do we start to understand the nature of her relationship with her daughters.In London Candida tries to find what to do with her time. She walks, she exercises in the gym. She waits. The main appeal of this book is its sincerity -although sincerity has many layers, as I understood in the end of the book. There are things you hold even from yourself. Candida's (she is candid) mood changes from depression (that even she is not able to fully admit to herself) to feelings of anticipation... a certainty that something good is about to happen to her; and indeed it does. The second part of the story is also told by Candida, however in the third voice and describes the trip she holds with her friends. Candida (or rather Margaret Drabble) seems to experiment with several methods of writing in order to achieve a better understanding of herself, or of others... The changing methods of writing are quite sophisticated and many issues connected with the changing methods are understood only later in the story. I am not certain these changes in tone were necessary. This is a good story which is able to stand by itself and I am not sure it needed all the decorations. The Seven Sisters has a somewhat contradictory nature: surprising and boring, slow and fast, sincere and yet not totally revealing. I can understand all those who wrote it is slow. Indeed, this is part of the charm I found in this book. It did convince me as a frank description of a person writing to himself about all the small mundane details that make up one's life; accounts of conversations, thoughts, sights, things you eat. Face it; this is what you think about during the day, not always about highly philosophical issues. However, although the account is slow, there are sudden fast changes between the four parts, whereas the fourth part seems to be the most revealing. After you get used to a certain tone in the account, there are fast sudden changes. There is one part in the story which made me feel betrayed and cheated, and here I do agree with previous reviewers but all in all this is a believable story of real life. Candida is a dry person who does not hold a high opinion of herself - and this again is another appeal of the book. Its about regular people trying to give meaning to their lives in every age.
Rating: 
Summary: B-O-R-I-N-G!!
Review: I love good fiction, and I especially love good fiction about older women carving out a good life for themselves. Unfortunately, this book is neither! Admittedly, this is the first Margaret Drabble book I have ever read, but, if this one is any indication of her writing, I will not be back for more! I found this book incredibly dry, boring, and s-l-o-w!! I forced myself to finish it (after all, I paid full price and for a hardback, something I rarely do now with such good resources for good used copies) hoping with every page that it would improve. It never did. When I diligently labored through it and finally turned that last page I felt as if I had been released from a very stale ordeal. Quite different than when I so dread that upcoming last page and want more. Unless you are a really devoted Drabble fan, I'd skip this one!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Change of Pace
Review: I'm a newcomer to the work of Margaret Drabble and from what I can tell she isn't someone that writes books that I would normally gravitate towards but, I must say I really enjoyed "The Seven Sisters." It's a mature work with mature characters - and I found myself savoring the language and quality of Ms. Drabble's talent. This story of "starting over" was rich with tone and intelligence. It's literature in the true sense of the word and I really enjoyed stretching myself and trying something new.
Rating:
Summary: Why not write a fairy tale?
Review: I've been a Drabble fan for almost 40 years -- "The Needle's Eye" is one of my favorite novels, ever -- but I found this book disturbing and distressing. I'm a divorced woman in my 50s, living alone in an urban area, so I identified very closely with Candida through most of the novel. But Drabble, who is herself MARRIED, cannot bear to leave Candida unattached. Instead, near the end of the novel, she cooks up an umarried handsome neurosurgeon who is smitten with Candida, and then an unmarried handsome electronics entrepreneur who is instantly enamoured with Candida & who, it's hinted, will propose to Candida "within the year." Give me a break!!! Why not just write a fairy tale? The fact is, most handsome successful men over 50 are either (a) married; or (b) dating 35-year-olds. I found the ending unbelievable and an insult to the millions of single women over 50 who can't find ANY men like this who are interested in them, let alone two!
Rating:
Summary: SLOW! SLOW! SLOW!!!
Review: If you want a book that "flows" - skip this one! As a product of the fifties - and a voracious reader - I think I can usually find some good in most books. This one lost me about 2/3 of the way through. I could deal with the cast of characters and how the author weaves them together - although not too tightly woven- but the entire plot seemed to fray toward the end. It appeared she was not certain what direction she wanted to take and she took several - leaving the reader dangling in the process! I managed to drag to the end, hoping to find some fantastic conclusion and perhaps surprising finish but it just was not there. I would not recommend this book unless you were totally out of reading material and had no hopes of finding ANYTHING else!
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